Avian Explorer » pelican

White Pelicans

Elizabeth — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 06:49:21 +0000

Sometimes I’ll be watching a television show that takes place in San Francisco and I remember the day we went to the Presidio and watched the pelicans dive. We don’t have Brown Pelicans here, but the White Pelicans are nice to watch.

The gray heads that you see above are part of an eclipse plumage, which is the drab non-breeding plumage that a bird has before molting into fancy breeding plumage. These pictures were taken back in May and the pelicans had a mix of non-breeding plumage and other signs of breeding. Specifically, some of the males already grew horns on their beaks.

That horn is so huge!

I’m hoping that someday I can get close enough to the White Pelicans to get pictures of their eyes.

White Pelicans

Elizabeth — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 02:49:52 +0000

Yesterday was hot! We went to Farmington Bay and stayed just long enough to get some good pictures.

Can you see how the heat warps the picture in the distance? I’m going to learn a lot this summer about how to take pictures in extreme heat. The birds were feeling the heat too. Check out this poor Marsh Wren.

and these sad barn swallows

the real treat of the day was to see White Pelicans. My love of Brown Pelicans is well established. And now I’ve seen the other type of pelican to live in the US.

Isn’t he breathtaking? The black tips are so cool. These guys are shyer than their brown counterparts. Of course, the Brown Pelicans hang out on piers with people all day. Here the pelicans are more isolated from humans.

There was a point where I was taking pictures of small birds like wrens and then I saw this giant body in the water. At first I thought I was looking at the Lock Ness Monster. No! It was a pelican fishing.

He may look small in that picture, but in my 500mm lens, he was huge! Isn’t it neat how the black feathers are almost completely tucked inside his wings?

Montanagirl has an interesting post that shows White Pelicans in flight with cormorants so you can get a feel for the size differences.

Brown Pelican

Elizabeth — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:43:00 +0000

The Presidio of San Francisco is a former military installation that was turned into a park in 1994. It’s an excellent park for Californians because it includes water, trails for biking and jogging, and a cafe with many vegetarian options.

Our timing was perfect today because the fog was in the process of lifting when we arrived. At the beginning you could only see part of the Golden Gate Bridge.

But soon you could see all of it.

I saw many birds today including four new types of birds. But today I’d like to focus on the Brown Pelican. Pelicans of all different ages were everywhere.

they like posts

they especially like sitting on posts

The bird above is a subadult, which means he’s transitioning from having a blue beak and brown feathers to a yellow beak and white feathers.

there was also a lot of flying

looking for fish

and diving!

sadly, most of my pictures of the diving looked like this

The pictures above are of a nonbreeding adult.

At one of the piers, there was an immature pelican checking out the view.

He is so beautiful. I’m transfixed by pelicans because they look so different depending upon their position and age. I love the immature pelicans because of their blue beak.

He was completely comfortable being near people. You can see here how the guy on the left was less than a foot away from the pelican.

He let me take hundreds of pictures.

When pelicans fly they look so graceful. So it was funny to see this one standing. He looks rather squat.

Next time, maybe I should bring a treat.

Double-Crested Cormorant

Elizabeth — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:38:00 +0000

Today I was experimenting with a new lens. The lens lets me capture images that are quite far away so I can go from this:

To this!

The double-crested cormorant is quite common where I live, which I now know thanks to my new lens. I’ve seen brandt’s cormorants and pelagic cormorants in Monterey, CA, but I’m partial to the double-crested cormorant because of their green eyes and hooked beak.

Cormorants catch fish by diving up to 30 feet.

Although there is no mention of this in the guidebooks, the cormorants travel with pelicans while fishing. I can prove it:

People in Northern California are frequently despondent when it’s gray and rainy like today, but it made for some excellent photography!

Birds in Motion – Pigeon, Pelican, Heermann’s Gull, White Crowned Sparrow

Elizabeth — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:57:00 +0000

I love capturing birds in motion. The most common, scrappy bird becomes a piece of art. Below is a pigeon flying after pieces of bread. This may be my favorite bird picture because his head and the pieces of bread are in focus, while the wings become out-of-focus at the edges.

This is a brown pelican. I like how his primary feathers flip upwards. (Photo by Jon)

The heermann’s gull curves his wings in the same shape as the waves.

Here you can see three different primaries curving at the tips.

The white-crowned sparrow moves so fast, his wings are almost a blur.

Pelicans

Elizabeth — Mon, 25 May 2009 23:33:00 +0000

One of the best things about living on the coast is the water birds. Pelicans are my favorite. They travel in large flocks, especially when it’s cold and windy outside.

Usually, I get nice pictures of their underbellies, but today, I got a really good shot of one.

I love their faces. My goal is to capture one with the pouch full of food. This group was captured during one of our infrequent sunny days.